Influence of organic farming on soil characteristics, crops yield and quality under the conditions of Midle Lithuania

Organic farming at Agroecological centre of Lithuanian University of Agriculture started in 1997. The crop yields under organic farming conditions were the following: winter wheat: 4,0 - 4,61 ha-1, oats - 3,9 - 4,01 ha-1, barley - 2,5 - 3,451 ha-1, cereals and legumes grain -1,83 - 4,3 t ha-1 and perennial grasses hay - 4,06 - 6,41 ha-1. The received yields are high and unusual for organic farms. Evaluating the long-term impact of organic farming on soil agrochemical characteristics estimated the significant amount decrease of humus, organic carbon, mobile phosphorus and potassium. The influence of organic farming on soil pH and basis satiation was insignificant 12.06 percentile units of proteins (2 class), 20,33 percentile units of gluten (3 class) in average were found in winter wheat grain, and index of sedimentation was 31.66 ml (2 class). The amount of proteins and gluten as well as index of sedimentation varied from year to year and mainly were influences by the meteorological conditions. The highest yields of winter wheat were received after the oat - pees precrops, the smallest - after the barley and buckwheat. The significant decrease of wheat yield was observed after the barley and buckwheat precrops, comparing with wheat, grown after mixtures of oat- pees and oat - vetches, black fellow and oatVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij